How new research hopes to one day manage Type 2 diabetes without medication
Researchers say the treatment 'resets' the disease, allowing patients to manage it without drugs
An experimental treatment for Type 2 diabetes, which aims to allow patients to manage their disease without taking medication, has entered its third round of clinical trials at St Joseph's Healthcare London.
It means the program will be accepting new patients for the third time since it began in 2015.
Doctor Irene Hramiak is an endocrinologist at St Joseph's Healthcare London and a researcher with the Lawson Research Institute who has been working on the exploratory treatment since the beginning.
What the researchers are saying
Under normal circumstances, Type 2 diabetes is treated with insulin and doctors will add other drugs as the disease progresses and the symptoms worsen.
Under the experimental treatment, patients in the early stages of Type 2 diabetes are subjected to a new diet and exercise regimen.
Then they're given a combination of drugs to help bring their blood sugar levels back to near-normal levels, allowing the pancreas to rest and reset itself and hopefully put the disease into remission.
"That's exactly what we're trying to do is to sort of do a reset, you know as you push your computer's reset button and see if the pancreas will be able to function normally for a period of time."
About 1 in 10 people in Ontario suffers from some form of diabetes and most of them are taking medication. Researchers hope their work will one day give millions of people new treatment choices.
What the patients are saying
Type 2 diabetes runs in Greg Ackland's family, so he wasn't surprised when he got his diagnosis at age 46.
"I don't think it was really a question of if I become a diabetic, but a question of when I become a diabetic," he said, noting the treatment has made him more hopeful when it comes to living with the disease and getting more years out of his life.
"I had no out," he said. "With this treatment, I will never be not diabetic, but it allowed me to reset myself."
"I jumped at the chance to look into it and try it out," Joceyln Chauvin said, noting she learned about the experiment on her local television news.
Once she started the treatment, she said she felt a big difference in about six months.
"I feel wonderful," said, noting a combination of diet and excercise has allowed her to stop taking her medications that manage her diabetes. "I've been off since last May."
"Hopefully I can stay off for as long as possible."
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